


When Will Met Teddy

by rorywritesstuff



Category: Marvel, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alcohol, Children, Divorce, Family, First Meetings, Hangover, M/M, Marriage, Name Changes, Older Characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-12
Updated: 2017-05-12
Packaged: 2018-10-30 21:06:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10884933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rorywritesstuff/pseuds/rorywritesstuff
Summary: Billy and Teddy meet when they are in their mid-forties.





	When Will Met Teddy

Will had been sitting in the booth for well over forty minutes. He was beginning to think that Tom wasn’t going to show; his half-brother had a habit of disappointing him. A man half-shuffled, half-fell into the booth and for a second, Will thought it might be Tom, but the man was too tall, too broad, too blonde to be anyone related to Will. He had a thick moustache a few shades darker than his hair and clearly took very good care of himself, looking to be in his mid-forties; there were definite camps of grey among the blonde.  
“Sorry I’m late, darling.” The man said, still not having looked up from his phone.  
“That’s okay,” Will replied. It had been a long time since anyone had called him ‘darling’, even by accident.  
The man registered the unexpected voice and turned to Will. “Oh!” He exclaimed awkwardly, “Hello.”  
“Hello.”  
“You’re not Cassie.”  
“I’m aware.”  
“I think I’m in the wrong booth.”  
“I think so, too.”  
“This is very embarrassing.”  
“I can imagine.”  
Despite this, the man was smiling quite broadly. He had a lovely smile, and his eyes were quite arresting. “Have you seen Cassie?”  
“Is she wearing a name-tag?”  
“I don’t think so.”  
“Then I don’t know.”  
The man laughed. His voice was deep, but spritely- it sounded like he told dirty jokes a lot of the time.  
“I’m Teddy,” the man extended his hand.  
“Will.”  
“Nice to meet you, Will.”  
“Nice to meet you, Ted.”  
“Teddy, please.”  
A long time ago, Will had been known as ‘Billy’, but had dropped the ‘-y’ sometime in his mid-twenties, when one day it suddenly sounded unbearably childish. ‘Bill’ had soon morphed into ‘Will’, according to his friends because ‘Bill’ just didn’t suit him, and it wasn’t until he had met Teddy that Will realised he missed his original nickname. It made Teddy seem like he’d retained some vestige of youth, whereas Will now just felt old.  
“So, who’s Cassie, darling?”  
“An old friend, and one of the tallest women you’ll ever meet. Are you waiting for someone?”  
“My brother. He won’t come. He never does.”  
“At least you have some family left.” Teddy immediately regretted saying this, he couldn’t bear being maudlin. “Can I buy you a drink?”  
Will shook his head and held up his empty glass in explanation. “I’m only allowed one.”  
“Who ‘allows’ you?”  
“Me.”  
“That’s very sensible. Which is why I won’t be doing it.” He caught the waiter’s eye ordered a Long Island Iced Tea. “Do you mind if I sit here until Cassie comes?”  
“Not at all.”  
Will felt his phone buzz and picked it up. It was a message from Tom: ‘Kate called, won’t make it. Maybe tomorrow?’ Will sighed, why had he expected anything else? “My brother’s not coming.” He announced, for no particular reason.  
Teddy spotted a photo stuck to the back of the phone, behind the case. It was Will holding a little girl aloft in some distant living room. He pointed at the phone, “Is that your daughter?”  
Will chuckled. “No, that’s my niece.”  
“Ah. No children?”  
“No children. Just an ex I’m afraid of.”  
“Ex- wife or ex-husband?”  
Had he allowed himself another, Will would have spat out his drink. No one had asked him something like that in a long time. “Husband,” he murmured.  
“Good answer,” Teddy replied, clinking his drink against Will’s empty glass.  
So it was like that, Will thought; he was being flirted with. He felt so unprepared and overwhelmed, he might as well be being burgled. He’d rather given up on himself.  
“Are you married?” Will responded.  
“Never. Didn’t see the point.”  
“I used to see the point…” Will trailed off.  
Teddy drained his drink and ordered another. “Can I at least get you an orange juice?”  
“I’m really fine. Are you sure you’ll be okay with another so quickly?”  
“Yeah, alcohol doesn’t really touch me.”  
“I should be going.” Tom wasn’t coming anyway.  
“Do you have to? I was hoping we’d fuck.”  
This time, Will choked. He wasn’t sure anyone had ever spoken to him like that, in all his forty six years.  
“I’ll take that as a sign you’re not interested.”  
“No, I am.” Will heard himself say. “It’s just you’re very forward.”  
“Well, I used to be more coy and then my mother died of an aneurysm mid-sentence. I don’t like leaving things unsaid.”  
Will had no idea what to say to this.  
“Shall we go somewhere with a bed?” Teddy asked.  
“What about your friend?”  
“I’ll send her a message saying I’ve pulled. She’ll understand.”  
“I said I was interested. I didn’t say you’d pulled.”  
“Fair enough. What can I say to seal the deal?”  
Will thought on this for a second. What did he want? What had been lacking from the past few times he’d hooked up with someone, as long ago as they were? “Tell me you’ll still be there in the morning.”  
“Done.” 

On waking up and turning over to see Teddy splayed beside him, taking up considerably more than his share of the bed and firing red-hot beer breath into Will’s face, Will wasn’t sure why he’d set out such a caveat. Because Will’s place was closer, they’d agreed to go there. Of course, there were a lot of benefits to this: Will felt safe; he was, largely, in control of the evening from there on; he didn’t have to walk home the next day. On the other hand, he’d been forced to allow someone into his space, which made him uncomfortable and then sad because of his unwillingness to open up.  
Teddy looked to be sound asleep. In the morning light, he looked much the same as he had before, although close up, Will noticed that his teeth were wonky.  
Will got up and started making breakfast. At first, he tried to keep the noise to a minimum, but then he began to want Teddy to leave, so he tried to make the process as loud as possible. It didn’t seem to produce any effect, as Teddy did not emerge from the bedroom while Will was cooking, eating or washing up after his scrambled eggs. He took a shower, and considered singing a loud song but couldn’t bring himself to do it. Still Teddy didn’t wake.  
Will would have to go to work soon. He couldn’t put off getting dressed any longer. He went back into the bedroom, a towel around his waist (something he’d almost forgotten to do, he was so used to being alone in his house), and started taking clothes from his drawers. He’d just pulled on his briefs when he heard a noise from the bed. He turned and saw that Teddy was half-awake.  
“Hey.” He said quietly.  
In response, Teddy grunted.  
“I’m going to work soon.” He paused. He wanted to tell the other man to leave, but it seemed unnecessarily harsh. “Do you need anything?”  
“No.” His voice was thick with sleep.  
“Okay, can you just let yourself out? Soon?”  
But Teddy was asleep again. Will pulled on the rest of his clothes and left, but not before, on a whim, kissing Teddy on the forehead.  
It had been a nice night, after all. 

Around noon, Will got a new text from Tom: ‘Will come over this afternoon, Kate and Eva coming too.’ Will was surprised- last time he and Tom had spoken, he was informed in no uncertain terms that the Kate thing was over for good. He smiled, he liked Kate and, when Eva was out of the room, she would definitely enjoy hearing about Teddy. 

Teddy had lied to Will the night before; alcohol did touch him. He slept for nearly eighteen hours, waking up periodically to find that this headache was still there. Only when it had completely abated did he venture from Will’s bed.  
He got up to find that Will had folded his clothes and put them neatly on the bedside table. He smiled at the sweetness. He put on his briefs and then went to the bathroom; he didn’t think to check the time. His work was extremely flexible about when he came in; he hadn’t used an alarm in years.  
He saw that Will had some fancy moisturising lotion and decided to use a little bit. This was the sort of thing he’d never buy for himself, but was always fascinated by. He disliked how his skin felt now-a-days.  
He spread some of the lotion on his hands and then added a little to his face. He looked at himself, near-naked, in the mirror. His chest hair was getting a bit unruly. He saw the shaving cream- another expense Teddy didn’t bother with- on the shelf. Well, he thought, why not? 

Will arrived to find Tom and his family waiting there already. He hugged his brother and sister-in-law, spun his niece a few times in the air and then let them into the house.  
They all walked in to find Teddy, clad only in his fairly revealing underwear, rubbing foam across his chest. None of them knew what to say until Teddy turned and waved, “Hello. I’ll be done in a second.” He shut the bathroom door.  
Tom turned to Will. “You didn’t say you had company.”  
“I didn’t know I had company.”  
Kate could barely suppress her laughter. “He seems nice.”  
“Who was the naked man?” Eva asked.  
“He wasn’t naked,” Will answered her.  
“More’s the pity.” Kate said.  
“Why don’t we go play in the living room?” Tom suggested to his daughter. “While Uncle Will-”  
“Uncle Billy.” Will interjected. “I want to be Uncle Billy.”  
“While he talks to his guest.”  
And with that Tom picked her up and carried her into the other room. Kate turned to Will and whispered “lucky,” before following.  
Will knocked twice and then entered the bathroom. Teddy was tending to his chest air with powerful, decisive strokes of the razor, leaving his pecs on prominent display. They looked even better in the daylight.  
“I’m sorry, I borrowed a razor.” Teddy said.  
“I didn’t think you’d still be here.”  
“Neither did I. I didn’t realise how late it was.”  
Will paused and then said, “you need to leave.”  
“Yeah, I got that feeling.” He finished shaving, washed the razor in the sink and putting it back on the shelf.  
“You can keep that.” Will said.  
“Oh, thanks. It’s such a pain to keep buying them, you know?”  
“I just let mine grow out.”  
“I noticed. It was like knot-vine. I felt like Tarzan rummaging through the vines.”  
Will smiled. “It was very nice to meet you.”  
“And you.”  
Teddy walked out to put on some clothes; Will went into the living room to play with his niece.


End file.
